Text: C. F. Briggs (?), Literary, Broadway Journal (New York), February 1, 1845, vol. 1, no. 5, p. ??

[page 94, column 2, continued:]

THE SOUTHERN QUARTERLY REVIEW. No 13. January, 1845. Charleston.

It is a matter of surprise that a work of this character should not be more extensively known. The proprietor seems to have no particular ambition to give it a circulation north of the Potomac; for we cannot find that he has any agents for the sale of it in any of the northern cities, excepting Boston. Being a New-Englander and a resident of S. Carolina, it is very natural that Boston and Charleston should form his two points d’appui. Southern Reviews not being articles of prime necessity, like rice and turpentine, will not be sought after with the same perseverance that those commodities are by northern speculators. If the South would have us take her literary productions she must send them to us. The only rood that the north has ever sought at the South is food for the body. These remarks must not be taken unfairly; we only mean what we say, and have no thought of disparaging the work before us, which strikes us as being equal inmost points to the North American.

It is a genuine quarterly Review, modelled after the recognized standards, which it seems ambitious of equalling, not excelling. It is a form of literature that has never succeeded well in this country, and we doubt whether it be calculated to meet the requirements of our people. Some of the articles in the present number of the Southern Quarterly are apparently able, and one of them, a Review of Mrs. Gray's History of Etruria, by George Frederick Holmes, is learned, but too ambitiously smart. The longest and most imposing article, on Education in Europe, is from the pen of the editor, Mr. Whitaker.